RESUMO
After many years away from the limelights, at the beginning of this century, exercise tolerance testing has earned back an important position in international medical journals. The different sorts of information derived from a variety of studies based on it have shown us that this propedeutic method has a highly valuable prognostic impact. Because of its low cost and easy applicability, the exercise testing reinforces its position in the clinical practice of the cardiologist. In the early 70's, research relating the influence of the autonomic nervous system in heart rate behavior in all phases of an exercise tolerance testing began. Ever since, a number of hypotheses tried to clarify which would be the mechanisms related to the chronotropic response during effort and its performance in the recovery period. In this updating article the authors deal with an important data referring to the chronotropic deficit and the abnormal heart rate recovery, commenting on the prognostic implication of keeping the focus on the potential of its clinical impact. In other words, approaches that can be used whenever there is someone performing a monitored exercise tolerance testing